THE BRONX — Movies about an injured rock climber who falls in love with an amputee sprinter and a man taking a 1,300-kilometer tandem bike ride from Spain to Morocco with his blind autistic brother will be screened at Lehman College as part of an upcoming film festival.
The eighth-annual ReelAbilities Film Festival will take place throughout the New York metro area from March 10-16 and focus on stories of people who have physical, psychological and developmental disabilities. Films at Lehman College will be screened on March 14 and 15 in the music building's east dining room.
This year's selections airing at Lehman include "Stilts and Spokes," a documentary about a man named Jay Cramer who gets hurt rock climbing and falls in love with amputee sprinter Katy Sullivan while at a rehab center and wins the Los Angeles Funniest Comic competition after rebounding from his wounds.
The cast, along with director Jack Winch and producer Sonia Jean Winch, will be present during the screening, which will take place on March 14 at 5 p.m.
Lehman will also showcase "True Smile," a documentary about two brothers—one of whom is autistic and blind—and the 1,300-kilometer tandem bike ride they take together from Spain to Morocco.
"Margarita, with a Straw" will be screened at Lehman College on March 15 at 5 p.m., a movie about a Punjabi teenage girl with cerebral palsy named Laila who is a gifted writer and gets accepted to NYU.
Lehman's portion of the festival will conclude with seven short films, including "Bumblebees," which focuses on a man who overcomes physical adversity to find love. Director Jenna Kanel will be on hand to present the film.
“We are proud to be able to screen films that promote awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different abilities,” Merrill D. Parra, director of Lehman College’s Office of Disability Services, said. “These films challenge the way people perceive person[s] with disabilities.”
Film screenings for the festival will also take place in The Bronx at the Mosholu Public Library on March 12 and at Bronx House on March 12 and March 13.
The goal of the festival is to celebrate the disabled community and help bring them more into the spotlight, according to its director and co-founder Isaac Zablocki.
"We definitely lean towards films that show things a little more fresh," he said. "Our favorites are actually films where it’s not even really about the disability but just happens to include disability."
